[TenTec] Using an Argosy in the field

[John]

John,

My current plan is to build a vertical that can collapse into short 
sections.  It is a design by Phil Salas - AD5X and uses a 10 ft 
telescoping whip at the top and covers 60-10 meters, without a tuner.  I 
have had good luck with verticals and even though this is a 1/4,  with 
some radials I think I will be in good shape  I placed the address of 
the article  at the bottom of this note if you are curious.

Also planned is the acquisition of a light sealed battery probably about 
7 ah.  The Argosy can run from 5-50 watts so it gives me some play 
room.  And hopefully my choice of battery size will not be too limiting.



John / WA1JG

http://www.ad5x.com/images/Articles/VerticalRevH.pdf

On 4/3/2012 4:49 PM, John Peters wrote:
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Mar 28, 2012, at 5:21 AM, "Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP"<Rick at DJ0IP.de>  wrote:
>
>> John,
>>
>> The lynchpin to having a good signal when operating low power portable, is a
>> good antenna.
>> Some people take a great rig, run it at reduced power on a crappy antenna
>> (i.e., mobil whip mounted to a ground stake), and wonder why they don't work
>> anybody.
>>
>> Wire can be a wonderful antenna, but you have to get it up high in the air.
>> That's why I always took a telescoping fiberglass pole with me.
>> In the early days they were just 8m long.
>> Later there were some purpose-built poles for ham radio that were 10m long.
>> Today you can get them in even stronger quality in lengths of 12m or 18m.
>> In fact they even come as long as 26m but that's a bit overkill for a
>> one-man expedition.
>>
>> For Field Day I always ran a doublet, with each leg 13m long, and fed with
>> 300 Ohm Openwire.
>> I had a tiny little MFJ Matchbox (T-filter), with a built in Balun.
>> The Balun was great for 5w QRP or 20w, etc., but I burned it up running
>> 100w.
>> Had to re-build it, then never tried 100w with it again.
>>
>> For my normal excursions I had a special lightweight 3-band dipole:
>>
>> - made of thin Teflon-insulated stranded copper wire (I guess about AWG 22
>> or so)
>> - cut for 20m, insulator, more wire for 40m
>> - 2x short jumpers for jumping the insulator between 20m and 40m segments,
>> for 40m operation
>> - 2x short stubs with alligator clips to extend the antenna for 15m
>> operation (6 inches on each end)
>> - fed with about 50' of RG-174  (YES, THE THIN STUFF).
>> - A ball of twine for tying off the ends
>>
>> Twine was cheap and disposable if it got too tangled.  Ends tied off to
>> trees, or if nothing else, simply to stakes in the ground.
>>
>> The thin RG-174 is sufficient and loss is really not bad for short runs at
>> those frequencies.  The loss is worse if you use heavier coax, and then fail
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